Competitions such as that announced in today's CRIMSON are the soil for the seeds from which grow that hybrid individual known as the Big Man. Every year there is a group of undergraduates who visualize a far off goal of supremacy where they can bask in the glow of multitudinous activities. All forms of extra-curricular work, among them the CRIMSON, have the misfortune to be included among the rungs of the ladder that leads to this Nirvana. And so this feeling grows in proportion to the number of activities that are available, and the most unfortunate part of the whole idea is that it is built on a fallacy.

In the first place, individual activities are an end in themselves. They are for, the development of a particular hobby and not the means to attain the halcyon shores of paradise. Participating in college journalism is no more an introduction to the hall of undergraduate adulation than a course in Chinese literature.

In addition to this, Harvard has become to diverse to permit the flourishing of the activity Ubermench. One man does not have sufficient time to collect a watch chain crowded with attractive charms and still remain popular at the Dean's Office. Participation in competition today does not presuppose an attempt to join the ranks of self styled immortals, but a desire to develop some ability in a field for which the college does not provide.